I'm really interested in what rules will be changed (if any) to allow for 5-6 players when combined with the original set?

My experience has been that the more players there are (from 3 to 4) the more likely the Zombie victory gets. The main reason for this is that the number of zombies scales per player but on average the number of fight players only goes up half as fast (its roughly 50/50 fight/flee in my experience) meaning there are more zombies per fight player the more players there are. More zombies increases the time it takes to win other ways making the zombie victory more likely. I worry that (with the rules as they stand with the original) that a Zombie victory is almost inevitable with 5-6 players.

I do like that the attrition limit on adding to the horde will make doing so far more tactical with 5 or 6 players since you will get a choice of where to add zombies based on seating order and rolls adopted and I can imagine adding zombies purely to block other people doing so...

(If it isn't obvious I am very much looking forward to playing with 5+ players!)

I think that fight/flee strategy really depends on the available swag though. I personally like to go "all in" in a fight set up and flee the first few encounters to rid my deck of Hide and Heavy Stick cards. I end up with less cards than some others but all my cards are strong (min fight +2) and no zombies in the first few turns.

Anyhow, I assume the rules don't change at all with 5-6 players? At least I don't see anything clear that should change.

I think that fight/flee strategy really depends on the available swag though. I personally like to go "all in" in a fight set up and flee the first few encounters to rid my deck of Hide and Heavy Stick cards. I end up with less cards than some others but all my cards are strong (min fight +2) and no zombies in the first few turns.

It is true that the strategy followed depends on swag cards, especially in 3 player where the role of the third person will depend on what is more common, fight or flee cards (the other two splitting into a fight and a flee player). In rare occasions you can all go in one direction but not often successfully. I often find in four player you get 1 definite fight, 1 definite flee, another definite in whatever the swag cards allow, and one soon-to-be-a-zombie player who never quite settled into a strategy (or deliberately wanted to be a zombie).

Luds wrote:

Anyhow, I assume the rules don't change at all with 5-6 players? At least I don't see anything clear that should change.

Neither can I, which is why I am mildly concerned given my zombies per fight player argument.

I'm not worried as I would like the Zombie victory to be a cause for concern rather than mere possibility. This will prompt some players to change their strategy a bit, and after all, this game is all about surviving, an "all-in fight" player surviving a tough hoards with only 2 cards remaining in hand may need to buy 4 draw/hide cards to help him survive the next turn...

This is why I can't wait to play a 6 player game (or even 5), because in all my 3 player games at least so far, we haven't seen one zombie victory yet. Usually there is the one survivor left standing, or in the rare occasions a co-op victory.

The expansion cards are interesting, in that they really work best (at least half of them, it seems) with existing cards. Like Rollerskates, which make heavy sticks worth 2 fight instead of 1. Another card lets you add to another player's fight/flee, and keep the points to scavenge for yourself (on their turn, all points you play are yours to scavenge, not theirs). Very interesting tricks to the new cards.